The fellowships are designed to identify and develop a new generation of leaders interested in and capable of creating practice and policy initiatives to enhance child development and improve the nation's ability to prevent all forms of child maltreatment.

The fellowship consists of an annual $25,000 stipend for up to two years and opportunities for fellows to collaborate and learn from each other during trainings and events. The fellowship class is interdisciplinary in order to facilitate the cross-discipline collaboration needed to effectively prevent child maltreatment, according to the organization that administers the awards.

“It is a true honor to be recognized with this Doris Duke fellowship,” Miyamoto said. “I am eager to advance the knowledge base about child well-being through my dissertation research, and this fellowship will strengthen my work through new opportunities to interact with leaders and scholars across disciplines.”

Miyamoto is nurse practitioner with more than 10 years of experience providing health care to maltreated or at-risk children.

The working title for Miyamoto’s dissertation is “Predicting Serious Physical Abuse and Neglect in Young Children Previously Evaluated by Child Protective Services.” Her research seeks to improve the identification of young children who are at high risk for severe injury due to abuse or neglect, by evaluating which family/caregiver characteristics are independently associated with subsequent injury, and by using predictive analytics to improve upon a risk tool to determine the likelihood of subsequent serious physical abuse.

Miyamoto’s fellowship work is guided by her academic mentor Jill Joseph, who is the associate dean for research at the School of Nursing, and her policy mentor Connie Mitchell, who is the chief of the policy unit in the California Department of Public Health’s Office of Health Equity.

“This prestigious fellowship recognizes the potential both of Sheridan as an emerging scholar and of her work, which will improve our ability to identify and support children at risk,” Joseph said.

Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Doris Duke Fellowships for the Promotion of Child Well-Being are administered and awarded by Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, a research and policy center focused on improving the well-being of children and youth, families and their communities.

About the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC DavisThe Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis was established in March 2009 through a $100 million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the nation's largest grant for nursing education. The vision of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing is to transform health care through nursing education and research. Through nursing leadership, the school discovers knowledge to advance health, improve quality of care and health outcomes, and inform health policy. The school's first programs, a doctoral and a master's degree program, opened in fall 2010. Additional students and programs will be phased in over the next decade. For more information, visit nursing.ucdavis.edu.